Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I went to a bookstore today and couldn't find what I wanted. I bounced from one obnoxious unhelpful employee to the next until I met the king creep. I wanted to choke him with the cord to my headphones. This tape would be the perfect soundtrack for such a crime.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Admittedly, my knowledge of Indian music is cursory at best; derived mostly from secondary sources such as LaMonte Young,Terry Riley,Robbie Basho and latter day raga worshippers like Matt Valentine, Jack Rose and James Blackshaw. Sure I've always had a few Ravi Shankar LPs on the shelf but I've yet to dive head long into that vast sea of microtones.

This LP caught my eye the other day as I was shopping at one of my favorite local spots; Permanent Records here in Brooklyn. Ragas From South India's cover stood out as the photograph boasted two Indian musicians in what I believe to be traditional Indian dress and a sunglasses-clad woman who could have easily passed for Moe Tucker as seen on the back of White Light/White Heat.

It turns out the woman is none other than Dorothy Moskowitz, member of Joe Byrd's United States Of America group whose sole album is a crucial document of forward thinking in rock music. Upon reading the extensive notes in the original LP I discovered Ms.Moskowitz was a student of Ragas of South India's featured vocalist and Gottuvaydyam player Gayathri Rajapur and contributes tamboura with Harihar Rao rounding out the ensemble on percussion.Joe Byrd himself contributes to the liner notes with a very accessible basic explanation of the music, players and instrumentation.

With Pandit Pran Nath being the only other Indian vocalist I've listened to with any regularity I can only say the two vocal pieces are less mystical then those of Nath but no less enveloping. Whereas Nath's work strikes me as somewhat foreboding, Rajapur's voice alternates between tender yearning and pure jubilation. As stunning as the vocal ragas are, it is the second side's instrumental ragas that will transport deep listeners into a state of pure bliss. Ragas From South India is an absolutely perfect record for peaceful mornings and reflective evenings.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

I'm not nearly old enough to espouse on the long form degradation of the New York City music scene. I can say with some authority and first hand experience that the sterilization of what passes for the underground within the city limits (most notably McBrooklyn) accelerates each year with the seemingly endless influx of smug, overeducated charlatans playing artist and directing all the bills for their faux-bohemian lifestyle to Oedipal addresses in the suburban wasteland of mediocrity. Thankfully there are still some warriors fighting the good fight and the stars have aligned to bring us a night of amazing jams at Death By Audio.